Deuteronomy 20:17-19

Evangelical Heritage Version

¹⁷ Devote them completely to destruction—the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they do not teach you to commit all of the abominations that they commit for their gods, with the result that you sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ When you lay siege against a city for a long time, as you fight against it in order to capture it, do not destroy its trees by swinging axes against them, because you will be able to eat what the trees bear, so do not cut them down. For is a tree in the field something human that you should besiege it?